• Military Menu                       

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Industry
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

Partnership Key to Progress in Afghanistan, U.S. General Says

16 March 2006

Significant accomplishments include security, governance, reconstruction

By David I. McKeeby
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington -- Partnership is the key to progress in Afghanistan, says Army Major General Benjamin Freakley, commander of the U.S. military’s Combined Joint Task Force 76, currently leading security operations in that nation.

“As we enter this fifth year of operations in Enduring Freedom, we can see significant accomplishments.  And while there's still a great amount of work to be done, we think that also this nation of Afghanistan clearly is moving forward every day,” Freakley told reporters in a March 16 press briefing from Bagram, Afghanistan.

Freakley said that the Combined Joint Task Force is focused on three major operational objectives: security, governance and reconstruction.

The U.S.-led Combined Joint Task Force is 21,000 strong, including 15,000 U.S. troops and 4,300 allied troops, primarily from Canada, the United Kingdom, Netherlands and Romania, who are working closely with the 27,000-member Afghan National Army and the country’s 55,000 police to coordinate combined operations against armed militants. 

The provincial reconstruction teams, comprising military forces and personnel from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture are working with local Afghan governors to support area infrastructure projects and to strengthen local government and civil society in every district and province in the country.

USAID also works with nongovernmental organizations and other foreign governments to provide humanitarian aid and to repair and rebuild communities shattered by decades of conflict.

CONTINUING THREATS

The continuing threats in Afghanistan are complex, said Freakley, and come from several sources.

In southern Afghanistan, Taliban militants continue to operate from isolated safe havens in Afghanistan and from locations along the border with Pakistan, while across the country, the Joint Task Force encounters foreign extremists “motivated primarily by al-Qaida” who are providing funding, arms and training to various militant factions. Coalition forces also are seeing incidents of suicide bombing and use of improvised explosive devices that parallel insurgent tactics seen in Iraq, he said.

In the interior regions, drug traffickers and criminals paid by al-Qaida or Taliban remnants to attack Afghan and coalition forces are a significant challenge, Freakley said, adding that criminal organizations tied to opium trafficking are particularly worrisome because they fund militant activity and force farmers to continue raising poppies instead of diversifying into other, more beneficial crops.  Afghan authorities recognize the danger of the confluence of narcotics and terrorism and are making progress in eradicating opium crops, he said.

The Joint Task Force also contends with smaller local militant groups, such as the Haqqani network that operates around Khost, and the Hezb-e Islami Group, led by Gulbuddin Hekmatyr, in the north, he said.

Throughout Operation Enduring Freedom, the Afghan military and police forces have grown in size and capability as effective partners to coalition forces. 

“The Afghan National Army and the coalition forces have the initiative.  We're taking the fight to the enemy, and we'll continue to help extend this government by prosecuting this fight against the different groups,” he said.

A transcript of the briefing is available on the Department of Defense Web site.

For additional information, see Rebuilding Afghanistan.

(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)